In 2004, my office organized a coalition of groups interested in preserving the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).  MEP is a federal-state-private network of over 60 centers with 400 locations in all fifty states.  These not-for-profit centers work with small and medium-sized manufacturers to help them adopt and use the latest and most efficient technologies, processes, and business practices. 

This coalition successfully secured $109 million in funding for MEP for Fiscal Year 2005, ensuring that all MEP centers will remain open and no manufacturers will be denied services.  The coalition is active again this year to secure a similar level of funding.

MEP is exhibit A when I talk about focusing on small investments that reap large rewards for manufacturers.  We are working to preserve a program that in 2002 alone served approximately 18,000 manufacturers nationwide who, solely as a result of programs they initiated with an MEP center, reported an additional:

• $2.8 billion in sales,
• $681 million more in cost savings,
• $940 million of additional investment in plant modernization, and
• 35,000 more jobs just as a result of their projects with MEP Centers that year. 

Not surprisingly, most of my colleagues agree that we should support MEP.  Last year, we  organized several letters in support of this level signed by more than 300 Congressmen and Senators. 

You can read about a true MEP success story in my 2004 testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State in support of additional funding for MEP.  You can also view pictures of my tour of the success story, Tru-Val Tubing in Rochester Hills.